Chapter 5 - The Ransom Call
The raspy voice on the phone echoed through the silent forest, sending absolute terror into my heart.
The man calmly stated that he had intercepted my mother on her way home from work.
He demanded that Alex surrender the encrypted flash drive containing the cartel’s financial records.
If we did not deliver the drive to the harbor in exactly one hour, both Dorothy and my mother would be executed.
The call abruptly disconnected, leaving me staring blindly at my dark phone screen.
My knees buckled, and I collapsed onto the wet leaves, paralyzed by the weight of the threat.
Alex knelt beside me and pulled a small silver flash drive from his pocket.
He looked me directly in the eyes and promised we would not lose either of them tonight.
We sprinted to a nearby rural gas station and hotwired a rusted pickup truck parked out back.
Alex drove with reckless speed, tearing down the empty highway toward the industrial harbor.
We arrived at the massive, rain-soaked shipping yard with exactly ten minutes left on the deadline.
Alex navigated the maze of towering metal shipping containers using the blinking GPS tracker.
We finally found the exact blue container matching the coordinates on his screen.
Alex drew his weapon and slowly pulled the heavy metal doors open.
The massive container was completely empty.
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A digital timer attached to a massive block of plastic explosives on the wall suddenly began to beep rapidly.
The glowing red numbers counted down from exactly five seconds.
